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Emissions

There are toxic gases mixed in with our regular air. They have techinical sounding names like Nitrogen Oxide, Sulphur Dioxide, Ozone and one is just an acronym VOC. And they are making you sick. instead of breathing proper air you are sucking in toxic gas as well. No wonder it is hard to breathe.

You can't see Sulphur Dioxide - "SO2" - because it has no colour. It chokes you and creates "acid rain". The vast majority of SO2 comes comes from power plants. Nitrogen Oxides - "Nox" (pronounced "knocks") makes it so you can't breathe properly. They also turn the air a bit brown. It comes from cars, trucks, buses and power plants. Short-term exposure to nitrogen oxides makes respiratory illnesses worse while long-term exposure can lower a person's resistance to respiratory infections and make existing chronic respiratory diseases worse.

Volitile Organic Compounds. or VOCs are spelled out V-O-C. Most people have never heard of them. VOCs are nasty chemicals in things like paint, new carpet and hairspray that turn into gas at room temperature. If you child sprays hairspray directly into his face, the VOCs could kill him on the spot. This is nasty stuff.

And now we get to the most dangerous gas - ozone. This is really bizarre. Take "NoX" or "VOC", shine sunlight on it, and ozone forms. That's right, shine sunlight on "NoX" or "VOC" and by the end of the day you get ozone. Not the good kind that we need high up in the atmosphere to protect us from the sun. The ozone that we breathe down here is really nasty. That's why the EPD tells us that calm sunny weather "creates" ozone. On days with lots of pollution you can watch the ozone grow on the graph on our home page.

Hong Kong has only 5% of the land of the Pearl River Delta, but we create 20% of all the pollution. Pretty gross, eh?

And, contrary to what you might have heard, air pollution is not caused by the wind. It comes from nasty things being sent into the air. Also, air pollution is not just one thing. Here are the five main kinds of nasty air pollution, where they come from, and what they do to you.

These all make you sick, but they attack your body in different ways all at the same time, so your body fights back in different ways.

We recommend you do some deep breathing first, because you won't want to after you read this.

Where the Five Main Air Pollutants Come From

Pearl River Delta (including Hong Kong) 2002

The energy sector accounts for:

54% of the sulphur dioxide (SO2)
42% of the nitrogen oxides (NOx)
15% of the respirable suspended particulates (RSP) emitted by all sources in the Region.

The industrial sector accounts for:

39% of the SO2
13% of the NOx
60% of the RSP
11% of the volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions.

Motor vehicles account for:

31% of the NOx
14% of the RSP
55% of the VOC emissions.

In addition, consumer products containing VOC account for:

23% of the VOC emissions.

This is the emission situation of the whole PRD region including Hong Kong.

Taking only the major emission sources located in Hong Kong, their emission shares would be as follows.

The energy sector accounts for:

86% of the SO2
54% of the NOx
35% of the RSP emitted by all local sources.

The industrial sector accounts for:

8% of the SO2
16% of the VOC emissions.

Motor vehicles account for:

27% of the NOx
44% of the RSP
25% of the VOC emissions.

Consumer products containing VOC account for:

53% of the VOC emissions.